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Trump won’t withdraw US forces from overseas bases, expert predicts

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From Stripes.com

Nomi Prins, author of "All the President's Bankers: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power," told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo she doesn't foresee changes to America's overseas military footprint, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016. Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes

Trump won’t withdraw US forces from overseas bases, expert predicts

by: Seth Robson | .

Stars and Stripes | .

published: November 18, 2016

TOKYO — A U.S. political-financial expert predicted Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump likely won’t follow through on his campaign threat to withdraw American forces from overseas bases and may negotiate a bilateral trade pact with Japan to partially replace the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that he opposes.

Nomi Prins, author of “All the President’s Bankers: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power,” told the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan that she doesn’t foresee changes to America’s overseas military footprint.

Trump said during the election campaign that he would consider withdrawing U.S. forces from overseas bases if allies failed to contribute more toward the costs of keeping them there. That has raised worries in Japan and South Korea, where tens of thousands of U.S. troops are stationed at dozens of bases.

Prins compared Trump’s threat to his vow to build a border wall with Mexico. The president-elect recently told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that parts of the wall could actually be a fence.

Trump’s plan to increase the military budget and the desire of other Washington power players to retain an overseas presence mean U.S. forces won’t be removed from Japan, Prins said.

“Taking real troops out of real places where there have been alliances since [World War II] is something that doesn’t really fly with Washington,” she said. “My guess is that it is not necessarily going to happen.”